Pours sour milk in gig economy’s coffee
The Biden administration this morning proposed new interpretive guidelines for who qualifies as a gig employee, making it “more likely for millions of janitors, home-care and construction workers and gig drivers to be classified as employees rather than independent contractors.” The proposed rule “lowers the bar” from the Trump administration’s definition for who qualifies as an employee. Employers are required to cover employees’ expenses, pay minimum wage and overtime, and contribute to workers’ compensation and unemployment insurance. Gig workers? Not so much.
“While independent contractors have an important role in our economy, we have seen in many cases that employers misclassify their employees as independent contractors,” the labor secretary, Martin J. Walsh, said in a statement. “Misclassification deprives workers of their federal labor protections, including their right to be paid their full, legally earned wages.”
Uber and Lyft have said in federal filings that having to treat drivers as employees could force them to alter their business models, and some gig economy officials have estimated that their labor costs would rise 20 to 30 percent.
The proposal also defuses growing pressure from activists supporting gig workers, who complained that the administration had been too slow to intervene to protect ride-hail drivers and other app-based workers.
The proposed rule is not final.
Companies, unions, workers and other members of the public will have a month and a half to formally comment on the proposal before the department incorporates feedback into a final rule.
Corporate capitalists want their profits no matter what they cost employees. We saw that again during the pandemic’s height when they coordinated with the Trump administration to send workers back into meat-packing plants before the development of Covid vaccines. Hundreds died.
Tom Sawyer conned friends into paying him for the privilege of painting his aunt’s fence. Tom Sawyer, Inc. is not far behind. These greedsters won’t be satisfied until we are paying them to work for them. It’s their wet dream. Dying is not too much for them to ask.
Uber, Lyft and other gig companies exploit weak points in labor laws to squeeze more profit from workers by paying them like independent contractors. Good for the CEOs. Not so good for struggling Americans working their second or third jobs. Sustaining the gig economy’s predatory business model is not exploited workers’ problem.
Joe from Scranton and ‘Mahty’ from Boston get that.
Republicans? Not so much.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Request a copy of For The Win, 4th Edition, my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us